Nextlander sit down with MinnMax to discuss the future and why they left GB

Yeah and the Nextlander pod itself has mentioned multiple times things they did at Giantbomb so yeah this is is also just another bit of storytelling.

I don't think that's an accurate interpretation of the interview. There was some humility to be sure, but it's clear the patreon was intended as full-time self-employment from the very beginning. It's not like they all got other jobs that they're now quitting because Nextlander was such a runaway success. They knew there would be support.

This was a good, informative interview. At this point, anyone continuing to publicly speculate about drama behind the scenes is simply doing so in bad faith.

People naturally avoid saying things that make themselves look bad. Speculation tries to fill in those gaps and not everything has to be labelled as done in bad faith.

For example, I think it's highly improbable that the three didn't plan on launching a Patreon together just in time to cover E3 before they left GB. They claim otherwise, and that's fine. It's not a big deal either way.

The time and energy spent on analyzing and speculating on these peoples' lives is god-damn creepy.

@mclubberlang: I guess Alex does have a different energy & style to the rest of the guys, and no its not always what I'm looking for either. But his writing is tremendous, light-years beyond anything anyone else on the site appears to be capable of. There are good, capable writers here but Alex's work casts a long, dark shadow over all of them.

It sounds like Jeff Gerstmann made a really toxic work environment by not admitting Yoshi's Island is a great game.

Parasocial relationships make for gossipy weirdos

All this has made me realise how much I appreciate Jeff Gerstman.

Everybody's talking about Nextlanders but nobody's talking about Skylanders. :( *looks to boxes in closet filled with Skylanders, Lego Dimensions, and Disney Infinity and sobs*

Its really the reason Patrick left...

"Aha but that's what they WANT you to think," is what they WANT you to think. That's my mild speculation.

@yyninja: took me too long to realise you re not talking about Great Britain and the Netherlands

With all the "they want more creative freedom than can be attained in a large corporation" and "they want to have total creative control" soundbites I keep hearing, I still can't help but notice that, now they have those opportunities, they're still just doing the exact same thing they were doing on GB. Maybe it'll pan out more in the future but things just feel a little lame to me at the moment. And I think it's pretty much because it's just the same thing on a different URL.

This. Ya'll should spend less time ASLEEP and more time AWAKE!

They directly addressed this and talked about it in this MinnMax episode. They're aware the current content is similar to GB and they said essentially that they're starting with what they know and have the goal of branching out and diversifying as they find their footing and their own content style. They drew a comparison to how early GB was basically GameSpot, complete with text reviews and a news section, and eventually it morphed into its own thing that was completely different.

Well whatever they end up doing, hopefully it's not all locked behind a $10/month paywall.

@ben_h: The idea of this sounds great, except that Giantbomb is what came out of their new ideas already. It'd be nice if they can reinvent the thing they all had a hand in inventing, but we'll see. I hope it works out.

"They played us like a damn fiddle!"

I watched most of the interview with the Trio and MinMax yesterday, and quite frankly I do not see much to chew on.. I personally think there may have been some friction, but it's really chicken and/or egg. And overriding all this is after so long, there's the need to breath fresh air and do something new. I so totally get that.

I will, here and there, be throwing in with Nextlander. But I have also reserved my seat here.

Best to all.

Yep. Easy Allies, Minnmax, Kinda Funny and now Nextlander. Even Dan's channel might as well be The Funky Shop or whatever premium nonsense he was trying to come up with. Same thing, slightly different.

Not that it's a problem but it does seem to me that, once you're in that line of work, few (at least those that worked at the larger outlets) really make efforts to get out of it.

@besetment: they've already done plenty of free streams on twitch! :D

Very true. The biggest bummer about GB evolving into essentially a video-only site is how little of Alex's writing we got. Maybe Nextlander will give him some options and motivation to do it more.

OK, I need to go read his 2020 GOTY post again.

With a handful of E3/Steam Next Festival streams, Nextlander have done more to find games outside the "Big publishers + token 'It's on gamepass' mention" bubble than Giantbomb had done in the preceding 2/3 years.

(GB itself has improved in this regard under the current setup too)

During the leaving podcast when Brad was talking about 'the end' and eulagising, Jeff piped up and said we'll still be here next week - that to me said everything I need to know.